[lovemenot]

>> Drivers Ed is required to pass high school,

Really? Now I realise why some Americans looked so confused and dismayed when I was living there without having ever learned to drive.

So there's nobody from USA who chooses to have an education, and not to drive a car?

[fotbr]

Drivers Ed was an optional summer course in my district, and did include an on-road component. Not required at all (although the insurance company gave a discount for completing it).

HS graduation requirements vary (in some cases, much more than you would think) between districts. Usually, each town/city has its own district -- in rural areas a district may span many towns, in more urban areas, you may have more than one district in a single city. There are state guidelines, but we also have 50 different states. Federal guidelines are pretty sparse, and often only enforced by accepting funding -- don't take their money and you don't have to play by their rules.

I suspect that there is no blanket statement about the US public school system that will hold true nationwide (except, perhaps "it could be better" or "it makes no sense").

The reaction to not having a license is probably simply due to 60+ years of "The American Dream" for a kid was having their own car and the freedom^tm that came with it, and the simple fact that in the majority of the country, public transportation is crap, and our cities are not designed around walking. So a car, and license, is pretty much a requirement.

[dhosek]

It varies by state. In Illinois, Drivers Ed is required to graduate high school (exemptions for, e.g., visually impaired persons were not introduced until the 80s iirc). Illinois has some weird requirements for education. Except for the Chicago public school district, four years of P.E. is also required for graduation which really annoyed me because I would rather have had that time slot to take academic classes.

[Scoundreller]

> Except for the Chicago public school district, four years of P.E. is also required for graduation

A lot of people would argue this is very good policy.

[ghaff]

I'm not sure it's universally true. I didn't but that was years ago at a private school and I still took a summer Drivers Ed class for insurance reasons.

Given that most students do get a drivers license, it wouldn't be surprising if Drivers Ed were a mandatory part of some high school curricula. Note that this is probably just the theory part in most cases and doesn't include actual on the road instruction. (Which is typically done by parents or by a company--the latter again in part for insurance price reasons.)

[elamje]

I don’t see what you are quoting. That is not the case in Texas and I’m pretty sure other states as well.

[jacquesm]

Wrong comment thread?